Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence at the 44th G7 Summit in 2018. The two leaders made the case for an international body devoted to responsible AI development. GPAI, pronounced "gee-pay," would be grounded in human rights and the shared democratic values of its members. Rather than leaving policymakers to face AI alone, it would bring together experts from industry, civil society, governments, and academia. The announcement came on the margins of that summit, and two years would pass before the partnership officially launched.

  1234

• 2. The Founding

  ›

  The 15th of June, 2020 was the date GPAI officially launched. Fifteen founding members signed on: fourteen nations and the European Union. They were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, agreed to host a dedicated secretariat to support GPAI's governing bodies and activities. That arrangement gave the partnership a stable home within an organization already embedded in international policy work. UNESCO joined in December 2020, taking a seat as an observer rather than a full member. UNESCO's arrival as an observer was an early sign that the circle of founding members would not stay at fifteen for long.

  12568

• 3. A Growing Circle

  ›

  On the 11th of November, 2021, Czechia, Israel, and several more European Union countries joined, bringing total membership to 25. The November 2022 summit raised the count to 29. Among the full 29-member roster are Argentina, Brazil, Senegal, and Serbia, expanding the partnership's geographic reach well beyond the founding group. Seven more countries received invitations but remained pending membership approval: Austria, Chile, Finland, Malaysia, Norway, Slovakia, and Switzerland. That pending list stretches from South America to Southeast Asia and Scandinavia. Senegal's membership made it the only African nation among GPAI's 29 full members.

  91211

• 4. Inside the Work

  ›

  Montreal's Centre of Expertise hosts two of GPAI's four working group themes: Responsible AI and Data Governance. The Responsible AI group carries within it an ad-hoc subgroup on AI and pandemic response. A second Centre of Expertise in Paris handles the Future of Work and Innovation and Commercialization working groups.

  A Steering Committee provides overall governance, paired with a Multi Stakeholder Group, the MEG. The two bodies share leadership in each annual term, with one person from each pairing serving as MEG chair. In the 2020-2021 term, Baroness Joanna Shields served as MEG chair alongside Jordan Zed. In 2021-2022, Shields continued as MEG chair, now paired with Renaud Vedel. In 2023-2024, Inma Martinez held the MEG chair alongside Yoichi Iida. GPAI also runs a rotating presidency, passed from member country to member country in a pattern that mirrors the G7's own rotating structure. Baroness Shields served as MEG chair across two consecutive terms, 2020-2022, establishing a standard for leadership continuity that future chairs would either match or surpass.

  111221